The retail industry is made up of two parts—
1. Organised retailing
2. Unorganised retailing.
1. Organised retailing: It refers to trading activities undertaken by licensed retailers, that is, those who are registered for sales tax, income tax, etc. These include the corporate-backed hypermarkets and retail chains, and also the privately-owned large retail businesses. It offers the customers more convenience, choice and control with an experience of comfort and speed. The examples of organised retailing may be supermarkets, departmental stores, hypermarkets, shopping malls, multilevel marketing, teleshopping, etc.
Organised retailing is capable of generating employment opportunities. It offers huge potential for growth in the coming years.
2. Unorganised retailing: It refers to the traditional formats of low-cost retailing, for example, the local kirana shops, owner-manned general stores, paan shops, convenience stores, hand cart and pavement vendors, etc. It is featured by poor and old infrastructure, insufficient funds, lack of technology, insufficient upstream processes and absence of skilled manpower. It is not registered under any legal provision and does not maintain regular accounts. They are small and scattered units which sell products at a fixed or mobile location. Traditional units include Mandis, Haats, Melas, the local Baniya, Kirana shops, Paanwala and others like cobbler, fruit and vegetable vendor, etc.
